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Welcome back to ARROW SQUAD! The Shadow and Podcast Overlord are kickin’ it old school in this week’s podcast because I (Miss Ice) have a super secret mission that has unfortunately detained me in a location that makes it impossible to record with them. I have full confidence that my comrades can carry the load. After all, they were doing this long before I arrived! This week’s topic of discussion is Arrow Season 4 Episode 5 “Haunted”, which originally aired on November 4, 2015 and guest starred the lovely Matt Ryan as John Constantine.

As I have not had an opportunity to discuss Arrow as I usually do, I am bursting with things to say. I want to talk about so many things with Kevin and Brian, but I’m going to have to be satisfied with listening instead. In this blog post I want to briefly touch on a few things that I noticed and hope that it supplements the discussion the guys had.

The Map

I feel like I’m talking about LOST again. On-Island scenes, off-island scenes. And this feeling is even stronger this week with the brief look at the map Constantine had with him when he was captured. Baron Reiter (a.k.a. Baron Blitzkrieg) seems to be pointing at a small mountain range in the screen capture I took here, but I’d like to draw your attention to other fun features of this map.
If you enlarge the photo it may be easier to see the writing on it, otherwise you can take my word for it. There are a couple landmarks and phrases I wanted to point out.

Tempestatum Fretum (large body of water in the top left corner) => Tempests (or Storms, either way plural) Channel (the etymology of the word tempestas finds its roots in tempus, that is, time)
Sinum Beluas (the small body of water connected to Tempestatum Fretum) => Gulf of Monsters (or beasts)
Meridiem Montes (mountain range to the south of Sinum Beluas) => Midday Mountains
Meridie Oceano (body of water to the west of the mountain range) => Midday Ocean
Amissae Insulam ad Meridiem MCDXXIII => Let Go (Lose) Island Midday 1623 (either the Lost Island to the South or the south part of Lost Island; due to the size of the map, I’m inclined to think the latter)

This all may mean absolutely nothing, but I don’t like leaving rocks unturned! There are several mentions of meridiem, or “midday”, which may refer to its location in the world, or it may be something else entirely. But an important aspect to this map is that it seems to have been made in 1623… which means we may have some really cool history coming into play later in the season!

Interestingly, the etymology of the Latin word Insulam has its roots in anatomy, specifically the insular cortex in the human brain, located within the lateral sulcus. Rather than it controlling certain functions, like the frontal lobe, the insular cortex is descriptive of the deep fissure which divides the cerebrum into two parts, the upper part (which is big) and the lower part (which is small). If you look at a brain from the side, it’s that deep ridge that starts around the top of the ear and looks like a half-smile.

Hmm… Do I read to much into everything?

Laurel, Laurel, Laurel

We haven’t been keeping our feelings about Laurel a secret, and even though she feels to be acting out of character and not really understanding the magnitude of her actions, I think I may understand her perspective a little more after this episode. The following is a transcript of the scene outside of Thea’s hospital room between Oliver and Laurel.

Laurel: “I didn’t tell you I took my sister to Nanda Parbat because I knew you wouldn’t approve. Why didn’t you tell me you took Thea?”
Oliver: “What does that have to do with anything?”
Laurel: “It’s the hypocrisy I can’t stand. It’s OK for you to do whatever you have to for your sister but it’s not OK for me to do the same for mine?”
Oliver: “Sara was dead. Thea wasn’t.”
Laurel: “Then why didn’t you tell me about Thea 7 months ago? Because you don’t see me as an equal.”
Oliver: “What? Oh, come on. Laurel, of course I see you as an equal.”
Laurel: “No, you don’t! You never have. You never told me that you were the Arrow, you didn’t support me becoming the Black Canary, and you never would have told me that there’s a way to save my sister. My sister, she’s out of her mind right now because of something that I did. A decision that I made. Did you ever just stop and think for one second about what I might be going through?”

This rant from Laurel is a little hard for me to decipher. Is her line, “Then why didn’t you tell me about Thea 7 months ago?” meant to be something like… “If saving Thea was so innocent, then why didn’t you tell me?” or is it more of an accusation: “If you can take Thea, why can’t I take Sara?” Either way, it doesn’t really make sense. She still seems to think that what she did and what Oliver did were of equal caliber. Which Oliver then calls out as the obvious difference between their two acts: Sara was dead.
I understand the tirade at the end of the scene, the frustration that Laurel has in trying to make herself relevant. Her arguments are somewhat valid, except for the one about her sister. Frankly, Oliver didn’t tell her there was a way to save her sister because it wasn’t saving that they’d be doing. Clearly. So for Laurel to spin it back on herself and say, “What about how I’m feeling?” is total bollocks. It is difficult for me to have compassion on people who don’t have remorse, and I’m not seeing any remorse.

So, if I’m interpreting this scene correctly, Laurel is blaming Oliver for her bad decision because he didn’t give her all the information she needed. However, as a human being living in the pseudo-real world, I would assume that Laurel was taught the difference between the state of being “alive” and the state of being “dead”.

I think I talked myself out of understanding Laurel’s perspective. Never mind. Is anybody understanding her? I would sincerely like a perspective that sympathized and understood her reasonings for all this.

Constantine

After Constantine has secured the Orb of Horus, he tells Oliver that he “owes him one” before asking Oliver to come back with him. Oliver feels an obligation to help the people enslaved on the island and heroically declines the offer. During their brief time together, Constantine told Oliver a couple important things that I’m sure will be relevant for this season’s flashbacks.

First, he told Oliver that Baron Reiter wasn’t just here on the island for narcotics. Upon arrival at the underground cavern, Constantine said that Reither was of the dangerous sort and that there are things on the island that bad people shouldn’t have access to (while also commenting that he’s on the side of the angels). After they emerge from the cavern, he breaks off the orb’s top red ball and gives it to Oliver, saying that goons like Reiter are only interested in the sparkly bits.
Second, he gave Oliver his tattoo. Yep, you read that right. He gave him, his tattoo. I literally laughed out loud when Oliver looked down at his stomach, freshly branded. However, in doing so, Constantine said he also gave Oliver some insurance against Reiter and that when the time comes, he’ll know how to use it.

Because of Constantine’s intentional avoidance of specifics surrounding Reiter, I’m inclined to believe that Reiter knew what the map was for, knew even what Constantine was after, and is searching for either the Orb, or something similar, himself. So, will Oliver’s return to camp with the Sparkly Bit mean points for him, or an increase in suspicion?

Next Week

Season 4 Episode 6 “Lost Souls”

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